Rant : What is your Plan B?

slyronit

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Ever since Windows 10 was launched, I have remained cautiously optimistic about the future of Windows 10 Mobile. Sure, devs have been losing interest in the platform, but

  1. With UWP, devs have the incentive of developing not for WM10, but for Windows 10
  2. Windows is the only OS that scales across all form factors AND CPU architecture

However, I must admit that the doom and gloom being spread by various news outlets recently has gotten to me. First Tom Warren, then Paul Thurrot and now Mary Jo-Foley have pronounced the death of Windows Mobile. Note that these people are not news trolls, but long time Microsoft evangelists (Especially Paul and Mary) who have championed the cause of MS for 2 decades now. I can either hope for them to be horribly wrong, or hope that their predictions don't actually kill Windows Mobile (Devs thinking, if these people have jumped ship, why should we stick around?). Now the death of Intel's Atom and the Surface Phone looks even more distant now.

I started thinking over the weekend, if Windows 10 Mobile were to die, what would I do? We know MS wouldn't kill it off soon, for me death is remaining apps (Whatsapp, FB etc) leaving, too and making the phone all but useless.

Me, I would stick around as much as possible, as I am more entrenched in Microsoft's Ecosystem, rather than apps. If worst comes to worst, I would probably jump to iOS, as I cannot stand Google or Android.

I would be giving up these things, moving from Windows 10 to iOS

  1. Superb OneDrive integration-Seamless auto-upload of images and deleting images from the phone as well as OneDrive at the same time. iCloud is pathetic in comparison, I regularly share OneDrive albums with people via the web, you can't do that on iCloud
  2. Outlook - Windows 10's stock email app is better than the stock iOS email app any day. Yes, I can use the Outlook Mail client on iOS, but using an app is not the same thing. It doesn't do background sync of emails as well
  3. Live Tiles - I think this is the area where iOS is most lacking. The Home screen is useless and a waste of space on big screen phones.
  4. Wireless Charging - I have three wireless chargers at home, one in my car and one at office. All that investment would go to waste
  5. Glance - Unlocking your phone each time to check for notifications is such a waste of time and battery
  6. Money - I have a 950XL. To replace it with an iPhone (Plus variant) with at least 64Gb of memory would cost almost twice as much
  7. Loss if integration with Windows 10 on the desktop and iPhone

What I would be gaining

  1. Much better camera app with true burst. No, picking frames from videos or that horrible implementation of burst on W10 Mobile cannot even come close to iOS
  2. Apps - Even though I don't use many apps, maybe once I am able to use them, I would?

Do the rest of you have a Plan B?
 

harihar akhil

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OneDrive integration.did you even try OneDrive on android device- their android app is miles a head compared to abandoned windows phone 8.1 app.

Also outlook uwa on android is miles a head compared to windows 10 and dead 8.1
 

Cruachan 11

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OneDrive integration.did you even try OneDrive on android device- their android app is miles a head compared to abandoned windows phone 8.1 app.

Also outlook uwa on android is miles a head compared to windows 10 and dead 8.1

I don't agree, I think the Outlook app on Android is awful and the OneDrive app not much better. I much prefer the W10M versions.
 

slyronit

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No, I refuse to try anything Google, although I agree that feature-wise, Android is a closer replacement to Windows Mobile than iOS is; not sure of these apps.
 

Joe920

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Me, I would stick around as much as possible, as I am more entrenched in Microsoft's Ecosystem, rather than apps. If worst comes to worst, I would probably jump to iOS, as I cannot stand Google or Android.
I double checked to make sure that I didn't post this myself. :) I think I'd also go iOS, with 128GB storage to get around the lack of memory card access. I wouldn't like to lose drag and drop of media files, dual SIM, and wireless charging, but I'll live. I do like how responsive iOS is. Plus I still have a bunch of apps from my iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPad Air 1, and iPad Pro 12.9.

I really do like the pricing on the Nexus line though, but I guess I dislike Google's practices more than I dislike Apples high prices.
 

pankaj981

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1) OneDrive sync is not robust enough on either iOS/Android (stock), this is from personal experience
2) Though pics taken on the flagship iOS device are fast and in most cases in focus and look great on the device's screen, actual quality is not as good as any of the recent Nexus or android flagships. Video quality is one of the best on iOS, especially IS. Windows (current) flagships maintain a balance between both, sometimes (in most cases) outpacing both.
3) (this is for the above poster) outlook on android being cluttered does not necessarily make it superior. I've used it on a Nexus 5X and as powerful or feature rich it may be, Doze completely kills off the experience by delaying notifications and frequent slow downs at cost of battery improvements..something WM excels in.
 

slyronit

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I double checked to make sure that I didn't post this myself. :) I think I'd also go iOS, with 128GB storage to get around the lack of memory card access. I wouldn't like to lose drag and drop of media files, dual SIM, and wireless charging, but I'll live. I do like how responsive iOS is. Plus I still have a bunch of apps from my iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPad Air 1, and iPad Pro 12.9.

I really do like the pricing on the Nexus line though, but I guess I dislike Google's practices more than I dislike Apples high prices.
Yeah, it's not that I haven't thought of Android myself, but the latest Nexus have horrible displays in bright sunlight and I would rather not use a phone than use one with S-/Mi/Sense bloat on them and wait 6 months for updates.

Plus Google is evil.
 

libra89

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OneDrive photo upload has improved recently on iOS, because now you can choose to upload photos from messages without saving them first to the phone.

As for my plan B, I'm on iOS now, keeping an eye on W10M, hoping for things to improve. I'm really loving iOS but if what I like returns, I'll be glad to try out Windows 10 Mobile.
 

Joe920

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I would rather not use a phone than use one with S-/Mi/Sense bloat on them and wait 6 months for updates.
Definitely, at this point I would only consider first party phones, MS, Google, or Apple. I'm looking forward to next year's flagship phones, and the app situation. Although maybe I should try to hold on to $600 toys for longer than a year..
 

slyronit

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1) OneDrive sync is not robust enough on either iOS/Android (stock), this is from personal experience
2) Though pics taken on the flagship iOS device are fast and in most cases in focus and look great on the device's screen, actual quality is not as good as any of the recent Nexus or android flagships. Video quality is one of the best on iOS, especially IS. Windows (current) flagships maintain a balance between both, sometimes (in most cases) outpacing both.
3) (this is for the above poster) outlook on android being cluttered does not necessarily make it superior. I've used it on a Nexus 5X and as powerful or feature rich it may be, Doze completely kills off the experience by delaying notifications and frequent slow downs at cost of battery improvements..something WM excels in.
I miss true burst on my 950XL. Actual burst is being able to take at least 2-3 full res images per second (depending on light conditions and hence exposure), then grouping them together. My 830 had this and worked beautifully. In WM10, they replaced it with

1. Fake Burst - It just takes 7-8 pictures in series and saves them as individual images. I am not even doing DNG
2. Picking photos from 4k video - Unfortunately, in this case photo quality suffers. Videos are 30fps, so exposure is exactly 1/30 for each image + video compression

iPhone does this beautifully.
 

slyronit

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OneDrive photo upload has improved recently on iOS, because now you can choose to upload photos from messages without saving them first to the phone.

As for my plan B, I'm on iOS now, keeping an eye on W10M, hoping for things to improve. I'm really loving iOS but if what I like returns, I'll be glad to try out Windows 10 Mobile.

Curious to know, did you continue to use MS services on the iPhone, or have you moved over to Google/Apple's services?
 

wplee

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Microsoft won't give up on Windows 10 Mobile mostly because it now requires so little effort to maintain. 90% of the dev is used in the desktop anyway, also true with Universal Apps.

The problem is mobile hardware. Microsoft appear to have halted everything with Lumia and now all hope rests on Surface Phone or 3rd party companies like HP or Xiaomi.

So I actually think now is a pretty great time to go to your Plan B. Grab a Nexus 5X or iPhone SE, enjoy Apps for 18 months and see where Microsoft are in mid-2017 with Surface Phone.

The Missing Apps will come to Windows. I know we joke but they will come purely on the success of Windows 10 (desktop). The install base is already at 300m, there's only so long Snapchat etc can ignore that many users and making one Universal App is a no brainer. This weeks new Facebook, Messenger & Instagram updates are a great nod to future commitments.

So these next 18 months are a great time to live with Android/iOS, you can always come back next year?
 

TheJoester09

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Originally posted by Cruachan 11
Originally Posted by harihar akhil
OneDrive integration.did you even try OneDrive on android device- their android app is miles a head compared to abandoned windows phone 8.1 app.

Also outlook uwa on android is miles a head compared to windows 10 and dead 8.1

I don't agree, I think the Outlook app on Android is awful and the OneDrive app not much better. I much prefer the W10M versions.

I agree 100%. My plan b was to switch to Android, which I did for about 4 months before I finally broke down and switched to AT&T with a 950 XL. People here love talking about how MS apps are better on Android, but I was miserable with it. Outlook was trash, OneDrive was about the same as the current W10M app, and Office was pretty bad too. W10M isn't perfect, but it's better than Android. The latest Redstone build on my XL is far, far more stable than Marshmallow, and that's pretty sad.

To answer the initial question, if I absolutely had to switch away I would no doubt go iOS. I'm never touching Android again.
 

TheJoester09

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I agree 100%. My plan b was to switch to Android, which I did for about 4 months before I finally broke down and switched to AT&T with a 950 XL. People here love talking about how MS apps are better on Android, but I was miserable with it. Outlook was trash, OneDrive was about the same as the current W10M app, and Office was pretty bad too. W10M isn't perfect, but it's better than Android. The latest Redstone build on my XL is far, far more stable than Marshmallow, and that's pretty sad.

To answer the initial question, if I absolutely had to switch away I would no doubt go iOS. I'm never touching Android again.

I'll also say that my tolerance for bugs on W10M is much higher than on Android because when W10M works, it works really well. Android, even at its best, pales in comparison.

Just my opinion. Apologies for veering off topic.
 

slyronit

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Microsoft won't give up on Windows 10 Mobile mostly because it now requires so little effort to maintain. 90% of the dev is used in the desktop anyway, also true with Universal Apps.

The problem is mobile hardware. Microsoft appear to have halted everything with Lumia and now all hope rests on Surface Phone or 3rd party companies like HP or Xiaomi.

So I actually think now is a pretty great time to go to your Plan B. Grab a Nexus 5X or iPhone SE, enjoy Apps for 18 months and see where Microsoft are in mid-2017 with Surface Phone.

The Missing Apps will come to Windows. I know we joke but they will come purely on the success of Windows 10 (desktop). The install base is already at 300m, there's only so long Snapchat etc can ignore that many users and making one Universal App is a no brainer. This weeks new Facebook, Messenger & Instagram updates are a great nod to future commitments.

So these next 18 months are a great time to live with Android/iOS, you can always come back next year?

I wouldn't switch. I don't use that many apps (Only Whatsapp/Facebook/Uber). Paid a lot for the 950XL, then the Mozo leather backs and just pre-ordered the wood backs last week.

I am quite happy with how everything works with the MS ecosystem. The 950XL takes great photos, they upload seamlessly to OneDrive and deleting photos from the Photos app deletes it from both the phone and OneDrive. Email is also great (I use Outlook Premium), so overall I am happy.

Now is actually quite an exciting time for WM. I keep switching between Redstone and Threshold builds every week.

I am sure MS wouldn't ditch WM anytime soon, but with so much negativity in the press, developers can easily be swayed.
 

slyronit

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I'll also say that my tolerance for bugs on W10M is much higher than on Android because when W10M works, it works really well. Android, even at its best, pales in comparison.

Just my opinion. Apologies for veering off topic.

Wow! Never knew Marshmallow was that bad.
 

slyronit

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MS was actually on the right track for sometime, offering to make ROMs for cheap (er) Android phones like the Mi3, wonder why that didn't take off.


W10 optimized - I put the blame squarely on MS, for requiring a third time to get things right. If you have 1% market share, you cannot afford to re-launch your OS from scratch every year and then expect apps to be modified immediately.

I doubt MS expects to compare with Android/iOS numbers anymore. The best case would be if they maintain a niche market share and peak out around 6-8% in the next few years (Guy can dream, right?). Ideally devs wouldn't be interested, but UWP is what makes this interesting, people wouldn't develop for WM, they will develop for W10.

The next year would be quite interesting.
 
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